PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Jimmie M. Gmaz
AU  - James E. Carmichael
AU  - Matthijs A. A. van der Meer
TI  - Persistent coding of outcome-predictive cue features in the rat nucleus accumbens
AID  - 10.1101/300251
DP  - 2018 Jan 01
TA  - bioRxiv
PG  - 300251
4099  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/27/300251.short
4100  - http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/08/27/300251.full
AB  - The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is important for learning from feedback, and for biasing and invigorating behavior in response to cues that predict motivationally relevant outcomes. NAc encodes outcome-related cue features such as the magnitude and identity of reward. However, little is known about how features of cues themselves are encoded. We designed a decision making task where rats learned multiple sets of outcome-predictive cues, and recorded single-unit activity in the NAc during performance. We found that coding of cue identity and location occurred alongside coding of expected outcome. Furthermore, this coding persisted both during a delay period, after the rat made a decision and was waiting for an outcome, and after the outcome was revealed. Encoding of cue features in the NAc may enable contextual modulation of ongoing behavior, and provide an eligibility trace of outcome-predictive stimuli for updating stimulus-outcome associations to inform future behavior.We thank Nancy Gibson, Martin Ryan and Jean Flanagan for animal care, and Min-Ching Kuo and Alyssa Carey for technical assistance. This work was supported by Dartmouth College (Dart-mouth Fellowship to JMG and JEC, and start-up funds to MvdM) and the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (NSERC) of Canada (Discovery Grant award to MvdM, Canada Graduate Scholarship to JMG).